


how happy the home

by thisissirius



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M, Mother-Son Relationship, Sharing Clothes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-02 16:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10222271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisissirius/pseuds/thisissirius
Summary: snapshots into the life and family of robert & aaron;#3:who holds the camera, when they take pictures together?or robert's gallery says a lot about him





	1. comfort

“When are you coming home?” Robert asks, feet pressed against the side of the coffee table, laptop balanced on his knees. He has his phone tucked between his shoulder and ear while he types out an email. 

Aaron lets out a soft laugh down the phone. “Missing me, are ya?”

“Yeah,” Robert says without pause. He’s not ashamed to admit it, not now. They’re getting married soon, and Robert’s trying to be better at this stuff, loves the way Aaron smiles when he does it.

There’s a pause and Robert can almost picture that soft look on his face. 

“What?” Robert huffs out, slides the laptop onto the sofa beside him. “You don’t miss me too?”

“Why would I?” Aaron shoots back, but Robert can hear the smile in his voice. “Nice to get away from ya to be honest.”

“Liar.” Robert knows Aaron doesn’t mean it, but can’t stop his heart skipping a beat in worry. 

Aaron, who knows him so well, better than Robert could ever have hoped, says, “Of course I miss ya, muppet.”

Robert snorts, lays his head on the back of the sofa. “You’re lucky I find that name endearing now, rather than demeaning.”

Aaron laughs, and Robert grins. It’s rare to hear it so unbidden that he’s sorry he can’t see it for himself. 

“Come home soon, yeah?” Robert closes his eyes, misses Aaron more than he’s willing to let on. It’s been days, and their bed is too cold, the days too empty without Aaron in them. 

“Yeah.” There’s a car door shutting in the background. Robert wonders where he is, what business he’s drumming up. It’s not enough to make him want to get back to work himself, content to keep distracting Aaron, to keep Aaron on the phone as long as he’ll stay. 

The door opens behind him, and Robert’s eyes flick to the clock. Too early for Liv, so probably Chas back from a shop run. She’d disappeared half an hour ago, a grin on her face, keys jangling in her hand. 

“Is that my shirt?”

Robert looks up, startled, to see Aaron in the doorway, bag on his shoulder, eyes trained on Robert’s chest. Chas appears behind his shoulder, grin still in place, slipping past Aaron and into the pub. 

At any other moment, the heat in Aaron’s gaze would be enough to draw Robert over to him, to kiss him, but there’s a flush of shame at being caught out. Robert runs a hand down his front, shrugs. “Uh.”

The shirt hangs off Robert’s frame, but it’s short in length. It doesn’t fit well, but it smells like Aaron, is as close as Robert can get to having Aaron next to him. 

Aaron drops his bag at his feet, coming around the sofa. 

Robert can’t help but smile, reaches for Aaron and tugs him in. Aaron curls his fingers in Robert’s - _his own_ \- shirt. He drags his eyes up to Robert’s face, bites at his bottom lip for a beat. “So?”

“Yeah,” Robert says, feeling his cheeks flush. He’s not ashamed, but he wasn’t actively looking for Aaron to find out either. It feels personal, too close, but Robert’s already said _i would have stayed with you_  so anything else feels like an easy confession. “I told you I missed you.”

Aaron’s eyes soften, he reaches up with one hand, strokes the hairs at the nape of Robert’s neck. “Soft.”

Robert smiles again, leans in and kisses Aaron softly, again and again, until his lips are numb, until Aaron’s pliant under his hands, enough to drag him down onto the sofa. “I’m glad you’re home.”

Aaron says nothing, just ducks back in for another kiss. His hand is still curled in the t-shirt Robert borrowed that morning, hauls Robert closer. Robert goes more than willingly, kisses turning into shared breath, and he groans low in his throat as Aaron cups Robert through his jeans, nuzzles his cheek, bites at the curve of his jaw. 

“Fuck, you really like it, huh?”

In answer, Aaron hauls Robert off the sofa, tells him to, “Get upstairs now,” in a gruff voice that has Robert only too willing to comply. 


	2. i won't let you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> # 2 - i won't let you

“Robert,” Chas comes through the curtain, her face pinched, looking panicked. “What happened?”

Robert looks up at her, blinks slowly. He’s cradling his right wrist gently, trying to ignore the pain currently threading up his arm. He gives her a weak shrug. “I didn’t know who else to call.”

Chas flounders for a second, drops her bag on the chair by the bed. “It’s okay.”

There’s the sound of voices outside the curtain and then a nurse pokes her head around the curtain. “We’ll be right with you, Mr. Sugden.”

Robert opens his mouth to say something, but Chas is already sniping, “Can you make it quick? He’s in pain.”

The nurse assures her they will and disappears. 

Chas approaches Robert slowly, gently touches Robert’s arm above the obvious wound. “What did you do? Where’s Aaron?”

“I didn’t want to call him,” Robert says slowly. He doesn’t remember much of what happened, just the pain ripping through his wrist and forearm, and hitting his head on the way down. “They think I have a concussion.”

Chas runs a hand through his hair and it’s such a motherly thing to do that Robert sucks in a breath, doesn’t know how to deal with it. “You should call him. He’ll want to know.”

Robert nods. “I know. I just wanted - I woke up and just wanted my mum.”

Chas looks startled, shocked enough that she doesn’t say anything as the nurse comes back in, starts to deal with the wound on Robert’s arm. She gently tells him she’ll bring his prescription and as long as Chas is willing to watch over him and take him home, he’ll be free to leave. 

When she’s gone, Chas sits beside him on the bed. “You could have asked for Diane.”

Robert doesn’t want to talk about her, just shrugs. He stares down at the bandage on his arm. “I need to call Aaron. I’m gonna hurt him again.”

“This is different,” Chas says, reaches over for Robert’s good hand and clasps it gently. “This is the kind of hurt that he’ll want to know about. He loves you.”

“I love him too,” Robert says, oddly fascinated by the contrast of Chas’ nail varnish against his thumb. When he looks up, sees the concern and worry on her face, Robert blinks again. “I didn’t want to be alone. Diane is - I didn’t want her, didn’t want to worry Aaron. I needed my mum and I didn’t want to be alone.”

“You’re not,” Chas promises, keeps her grip on Robert’s hand. “I won’t let you.”

Chas isn’t Sarah, not even close, and they have a lot of history, most of it bad. Despite that, Robert’s glad she’s here, lets himself relish having a mother, just for a second.


	3. camera

Aaron’s surprised by how many pictures Robert takes.

As someone who constantly loses their phone, doesn’t really get all this new age shit (he literally makes calls and texts Robert and that’s pretty much it), Aaron has hardly anything stored on his. Robert, though, is _obsessed_  with taking as many pictures as he possibly can; Aaron when he’s sleeping, Aaron when he’s eating, Aaron when he’s smiling, _Aaron, Aaron, Aaron_. 

They’re sorted by album; family (Aaron, Liv, Vic, Chas, Aaron, Liv, Aaron, Vic, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron), friends (Pete, Adam, Bernice, Pete, Pete - seriously, if Aaron hadn't witnessed Pete round the Mill, the two of them drinking and talking shit, he’d think there was something definitely going on there), work (Home Farm, Aaron at the scrapyard, Aaron in his hi-vis jacket, Aaron again), and random (The Mill, Rob’s car ( _seriously),_ Aaron in Rob’s car, geeky shit that Aaron doesn’t care about). 

It startles Aaron, how many pictures Robert actually takes. He asks once, and only once, when they’re in bed, Robert a beat away from sleep. Robert sucks in a breath and lets it out slowly, a puff of breath against Aaron’s collarbone. He admits, slowly, painfully, that he wants to be able to remember having this, if anything happens, if he loses it -  he wants to remember. 

Aaron’s heart clenches painfully. It hurts to think that Robert’s _so sure_  that eventually he’s going to lose everything. Aaron doesn’t ask again, but neither does he complain about Robert taking pictures of him.

(The next time Robert holds his phone out for a selfie, it’s their second wedding day; there’s confetti in Robert’s hair, in _Aaron’s_  and he’s pretty sure it’s in his mouth; Robert’s got a smudge of lipstick on his cheek, courtesy of Chas; Aaron’s face is flushed, _happy_ , but he rests his chin on Robert’s shoulder, grins widely, and sees Robert’s - his happiness, his love, his thanks - reflected back at him through the phone.)

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: [sapphicsugden](http://sapphicsugden.tumblr.com)


End file.
